Match-holder attachment for lamps.



PATENTED APR. 17, 1906.

A. H. STOW. MATCH HOLDER ATTACHMENT FOR LAMPS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 24. 1905.

AUDLEY H. STOW, OF SWITCHBACK, WEST VIRGINIA.

MATCH-HOLDER ATTACHMENT FOR LAMPS- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April 17, 1906.

Application filed August 24, 1905. Serial No. 275,593.

To a whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AUDLEY H. STow, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Switchback, in the county of McDowell, in the State of West Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Match-Holder Attachments for Lamps, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a match-holding device especially adapted for use in miners lamps. Miners often work in wet places where it is difficult to keep matches dry. Moreover, the force of the ventilating air-current within the mine is so strong that the match in its ordinary condition is often blown out before the lamp is ignited.

The object of this invention is to provide means for carrying matches where they will be secluded from the dampness of the mine and increased in inflammability. To this end the lamp is provided with a matchholder which is preferably disposed within the interior of the lamp and which is open to the oil-chamber thereof, where the matches are more or less immersed in the oil used in the lamp. Thus dampness is excluded and the sticks of the matches become soaked with the oil which causes them to burn vigorously.

Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents a side elevation of a miners lamp containing this match-holder and provided on its exterior with a roughened ignition-surface. Fig. 2 represents a vertical longitudinal section of a miners lamp provided with this match-holder. Fig. 3 represents a vertical transverse section thereof. Fig. 4 represents a plan of a blank of sheet metal used to form the match-holder. Fig. 5 represents such a blank partly bent into position to form the match-holder.

The same reference characters indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

The invention is illustrated as applied to an ordinary miners lamp 10, provided with a wick-spout 11, having a wick 12, and opposite the wick spout with a short hook 13, Fig. 1, adapted to engage the miners cap, or with an elongated hook 14, Fig. 2, adapted to engage the cap or serve as a handle by which the lamp may be carried in the hand. The lamp has a cylindrical neck 15, open at its top and provided with a closing-cap 16, preferably hinged to a standard 17, attached to the body of the lamp.

A match-holder 20 is open to the oil-chamber of the lamp and preferably disposed within said chamber in position for the convenient insertion and removal of the matches through the top opening thereof and preferably out of contact with the side of the lamp, so as to avoid ignition of the matches in case the body or neck of the lamp becomes heated from the blowing of the flame around them. The match-holder is preferably provided with a bottom 21, which holds the matches above the bottom of the lamp.

The match-holder 20 is preferably formed in one piece from a sheet-metal blank. A blank for this'purpose is shown in Fig. 4 and comprises a rectangular body a, having a downward tang I), an upward tang c, and two dependent ears (1 and e at the lower corners of said body. The match holder is formed from this blank by bending the body a into an oval or cylindrical shape, bending the ears of and 6 into horizontal position to form the bottom of the receptacle, and bending the tang b below the body a at right angles, forming an attaching flange for securing the match-holder to the bottom of the lamp.

The top and joints of the match-holder are open and permit the oil to enter and penetrate the matches.

The match-holder 20 is preferably disposed within the lamp at one side of the oilchamber, where it does not interfere with the insertion of the wick. The match-holder may be made in any convenient form and ap plied to other forms of lamp. The lamp is provided on its exterior with a roughened surface 18, preferably at one side, against which the matches may be scratched to cause ignition thereof.

In the use of this invention the matches 30 are passed heads down through the neck of the lamp into the holder 20, the heads resting on the bottom 21 thereof. In this position the heads of the matches are held above the bottom of the lamp out of contact with any water which may accidentally get into it, and the parts of the match-sticks adjacent to the heads are immersed in the oil and become soaked therewith. This soaking tends to preserve the match and causes it to burn vigorously against the air-currents within the mine until the lamp is lighted.

I claim as my invention 1. A lamp provided with a match-holder open to the oil-chamber thereof.

2. A lamp provided with a match-holder disposed in the oil-chamber thereof out of contact with the side Walls thereof, said match-holder having an opening to said Chamber to permit the oil to come in contact With the matches for increasing the inflammability thereof.

3. A lamp provided With a match-holder open to the oil-chamber thereof and provided 1 sioi With a bottom disposed above the bottom of the lamp.

AUDLEY H. STOW.

Witnesses:

J. WALTER GRAYBRAL, T. T. SMITH. 

